Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said he is working on a plan to close tax loopholes to reduce sequestration budget cuts.
Levin told members of the Reserve Officers Association at a conference in Washington that they do not have to accept the continuation of sequestration–the $500 billion in decade-long defense spending cuts that started in March.
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We “still have time to replace these mindless cuts with a balanced deficit-reduction package–one that protects our national security, keeps faith with our troops and their families, and preserves the programs that form the foundations of our prosperity,” Levin maintained.
Striking a familiar theme of his, he called for that alternative plan to end some tax loopholes, and then use the resulting revenue to lessen the blow of the $500 billion sequestration reduction.
Noting his chairmanship of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Levin talked about lawmakers’ work to reveal “how international corporations exploit unintended loopholes in the tax law.”
“We estimate that tax avoidance abuses cost the (U.S.) Treasury $100 billion a year or more,” Levin said. “That money is one essential ingredient to the balanced deficit-reduction package we need to end sequestration. It is unconscionable that we would allow large and highly profitable multinational companies to continue these tax avoidance schemes while sequestration denies the men and women who protect us the training and support they need.”
He told the reserved officers in the audience that “ending these gimmicks is essential to providing funding for the training and equipment and support our troops and their families deserve.” He encouraged conference attendees to “consider adding your voices to those calling for the bipartisan compromise we need to achieve a balanced deficit reduction package to substitute for sequestration.”
Levin said the Pentagon, because of the budget cuts, is “staring at large changes in force structure and long-term investment that could leave us unable to deal with threats that are here today, and perhaps bigger threats around the corner.”
He said he rejects the assessment by some lawmakers that defense sequestration cuts amount to savings.
“Repairing the damage will only grow more costly in the years to come,” he said, citing cuts to training, maintenance, and equipment upgrades. “After such clear recent proof of the value of the total force, active and reserve components alike, sequestration is now tearing at the readiness of our active-duty and our reserve components.”
He noted other “urgent priorities” impacted by sequestration—including education, health care, the environment, transportation, and science and technology.
“We cannot allow this to continue,” Levin said.